We all know that whenever there is a good novel, it has to be adapted into a motion picture. Unfortunately, 90% of the time it is inferior to the novel. This is quite evident with the comparison between the novel and movie of Carnosaur. Carnosaur was first published in 1984 by Harry Adam Knight, and it has quite a following. Some even considered it being a masterpiece. Now I personally don't know as I have never read the book, nor do I have any intentions to. But people have claimed that it is better than Jurassic Park, and that Michael Crichton actually ripped off Carnosaur. Since Jurassic Park was published 6 years later, this may be true I don't know, but that book is still great.

Anyways, Jurassic Park was being made and had huge hype behind it. So some producers decided that they might as well make their own dinosaur movie as well. Unfortunately they didn't have a budget anywhere near that of Jurassic Park. Nor did they have the talent of the actors, directors, screenwriters, basically everyone involved in Jurassic Park. But hey, the book was a so-called masterpiece right? So the movie has to be good Right? Wrong!

Carnosaur is centered in a science facility where Dr. Jane Tiptree (Diane Ladd) is a geneticist who conducts experiments dealing with chickens, dinosaur DNA and human beings. Some how, she is able to give the chickens a virus which causes them to lay eggs. But these aren't ordinary chicken eggs. These are dinosaur eggs. What? Exactly. When a truck driver arrives to pick up a handful of chickens, one of them lays an egg at that moment and begins to hatch. Minutes later when our driver is down the road, the egg hatches and our driver begins to inspect his haul. Upon opening the door he is greeted with a nice surprise of a velociraptor and is instantly killed. Meanwhile we have Doc (Raphael Sbarge) who is a drunk that had a few run-ins with the law, guarding a construction site against tree huggers who want to save the land. This is where he meets Ann (Jennifer Runyon) his soon to be girlfriend after her whole gang is attacked by the dinosaur with hilarious results.

As soon as Doc figures out that there is a dinosaur on the loose, he decides to head to the science facility to gain some answers. He comes face to face with Dr. Jane Tiptree where she spills the beans about her plan. She believes that human beings do not deserve to have the planet as they will only destroy it. She wants to inhabit the earth with dinosaurs so that they can take over the planet, and the earth will then cease to suffer. This is when we find out how she plans to do this. Dr. Tiptree created a virus that is contagious, but only really effects females. When women are infected with the virus, they eventually become impregnated with a dinosaur egg, and are instantly killed upon birth due to the size of the egg. Get that? I find it hard to believe as well.

But what else is lurking inside of the main facility? Well I'll tell you. It's a T-Rex. This bad boy is eventually let loose to cause havoc in the small town. Will Doc ever stop Dr. Tiptree and her evil plan? Will they eventually dispatch of all the dinosaurs? Well, you will have to watch the movie to find out of course.

I find it hard to believe that the novelization of this movie is great. I mean, just read the plot, it's pretty far fetched. I found this movie to be pretty boring for the most part. They spend too much time explaining the outcome of each dinosaur and science behind it. But it's so ridiculous that you don't care how it's possible. And I don't think anyone watched this movie for its scientific mumbo-jumbo, we watched this to see one thing, dinosaurs eating humans. But even that ultimately fails for the most part. The movie has some nice gore to it. We get a face eaten off, head bitten off. But I don't think anything strong enough to warrant its R rating. The raptor sequences are hilariously bad. At one point I would swear that they used a cute stuffed animal to attack some of the people. I'm sure all they did was have a guy toss the toy at the actors, then they just squirm around. This might have looked better if they used better colouring on the prop. But I guess they decided that light green with colourful cartoonish stripes was the way to go. But if you think that is bad, wait until you see the T-Rex sequences. I swear you will laugh in your chair when you see the effects that these bozos came up with. Most of you here on this website could probably pull something better out of you ass. Sorry for language. The only saving graces of this movie are some of the deaths, The Great Clint Howard and probably the most important part - The ending. Some people might not like the ending, but I thought it was pretty realistic. Not the actual scene, but just what occurs.

Believe it or not, this movie spawned 2 sequels which progressively get worse. I haven't seen part 2, but I have seen part 3 and I'm sure part 2 can't be any worse. The book may be a "masterpiece" but this movie certainly isn't. But it is a piece of something. Now, my rating might be a little high compared to what I have said, but that's mainly due to the fact that this movie is hilariously bad. Not quite so bad that it's good, but on its way down that path. Sit down, have a drink and watch this with a couple of friends and laugh your way through it until it ends. You might enjoy its cheese, or you might not. I'm currently stuck in between.

4/10.

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#1:
bluemeanie
- added 05/30/2008, 10:11 AM
I miss this film. When I was a kid, I loved
watching it on late night television. Very
nostalgic. A gory "Prehysteria". 6/10.